I was fortunate enough to attend the Professional Insurance Marketing Association (PIMA) conference in Marco Island, FL. This conference brings together marketing executives from Insurance companies, Agents, and business partners. The purpose of this conference is to discuss industry trends, legislative issues and to create an environment to conduct new business partnerships.

Some of the major trends that were discussed were how big data is changing the business, the need for a better experience to engage with younger consumers and how new entrants to the market will increase competition. Maria Ferrante- Schepis, Managing Director from Maddock Douglas, a large consultancy focused on the insurance space, delivered the keynote speech on innovation. Her research shows that the insurance industry is ripe for what she describes as being Napstered. Much like how Amazon, Netflix and Uber have dramatically changed how consumers conduct business, acquiring insurance has similar inefficiencies that can be improved with technology. She believes that impartial advisers, crowd-sourcing to share deductibles, and global competition will greatly change this industry in the next five years. She also said that these changes will greatly increase participation with millennials.

Bill Sunneson, President of Mass Drive insurance, presented the findings PIMA's technology working group and continued on Maria's theme. His committee feels that companies like Wal-mart, Amazon and Google will change how insurance is shopped and distributed. In another presentation, Lou Geremia, senior adviser to Goji, stated that insurance companies are spending 100's of millions of dollars on paid search (up to $30 per click).

At Universal Wilde we feel we are well positioned to assist insurance companies succeed through these changes. As the leader in technology driven, "Thought to distribution" direct marketing we are able to quickly take advantage of trigger based campaigns. With only a very small percentage of the budgets discussed above, we are able to deliver high-quality direct marketing pieces to targeted consumers. Our technology also allows for seamless integration with insurance agencies to quickly deliver targeted follow-up correspondence.

UW will continue to participate with PIMA and we look forward to participating in this rapidly changing market.

I spent this past Saturday afternoon at Bed Bath & Beyond. I really do love the store. It’s filled with pillows, and comforters, and kitchenware, and signs that say “Bless this Mess” or “Home is Where the Heart Is”, and candles, and good smelling reed diffusers, and... I JUST LOVE IT! I’m a 20-something year old man and I am in the abundant company of 30-50 year old women, but the store is comforting and bargain-priced.

As an avid movie buff and serious super hero fan, I’ve been anxiously awaiting the premiere of Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier. If you don’t know who Captain America is or haven’t seen any of the latest Marvel Studios movies (ie. The Avengers, Iron Man, Thor, etc.), I will bite my tongue and direct you to the nearest Redbox so that you may begin your movie education. Really, they are good!

You can market the same product for fifty years, but as long as you're changing the way it's marketed to the consumer, you can change just how well it performs in stores. So...is there a difference between real value and perceived value? How do we know what the difference is between the two? Can we even recognize it? And -- if we can recognize it -- is it possible these values can change how we perceive other aspects of our lives?

Wilde Agency is big on human behavior. In fact, it's the foundation of our agency - we pride ourselves on the work that uses the science of human behavior to get people to take action. We have completed copious amounts of work that have been proven to be successful, thanks to behavioral psychology.